To grasp the incredible nature of the events that unfolded around Shannon Underwood in College Station, Texas, on Saturday prior to the Texas A&M-Alabama game, you have to absorb one basic fact: Almost no one involved in the story you're about to read—and watch—had ever met.

At first, it was just a user with the handle aikman748 on the Scout Texas A&M message board, reaching out to anonymous message board members, trying to find a place for Shannon, who has Stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma, and her husband, Clay, to tailgate before the game against the No. 1 Crimson Tide.

Somehow, what happened in the days that followed turned one message board request into thousands of dollars in donations, tickets, sideline passes, a shopping spree, free dinner and an outpouring of support for a family in need.

And then this happened.

Shannon Underwood, speaking by phone on Tuesday, still can't wrap her brain around everything that happened: "From the outside looking in, you can't understand. From the inside looking out you can't explain it."

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Underwood was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2010 and began six months of chemotherapy and another month of radiation. By June 2011 she had a clean bill of health. But that December, the cancer was back. She was able to donate stem cells to herself, as the cancer had not spread to her bone marrow. Once again she was in the clear, but that only lasted until December 2012, when she would need another transplant. This time, her sister—Ashley Walker of Garland, Texas—would be the donor. And again, she was cancer-free for a period of time.

(If this story sounds familiar, Robin Roberts took a similar path to recovery, receiving a bone marrow transplant from her sister. In fact, Underwood wears a multicolored Roberts bracelet. “She’s been an inspiration,” Underwood said.)

But a fourth recurrence happened in July, right around Shannon's 34th birthday and right as she was preparing to return to school to teach French in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district. Her prognosis for beating the cancer stands at roughly 30 percent. She finished her latest round of chemotherapy three weeks ago.

Four fights with cancer in three years left Underwood, a 2001 Texas A&M graduate, spending days on end in the hospital isolated from any real contact. When there was a discussion about going to a friend's house to grill and watch the massive showdown with Alabama, Shannon was adamant about actually attending a tailgate in some capacity.

"It was important to me because there were so many months I was really sick and not able to be around people and leave the house, which was tough physically and mentally," Shannon said. "It was important to seize the moments when I'm feeling good and live life to the fullest, even if it was just driving down and sitting in a bar or restaurant or parking lot. I didn't care. It was about being there, and experiencing the magic that is Aggie Land on game day."

But well out of Shannon and Clay's view, there was something special happening on message boards and social media. Randy Taylor, or as you'll see him in this thread, oldarmy1, started fundraising to get a pair of Texas A&M tickets for the game against Alabama.

"I thought they'd cost about $1,200," Taylor said. "Within 39 minutes we had $1,205, so I posted, 'OK we've reached the goal you can stop and any additional money will just be given in cash.'

"Next thing you know we're at $3,000 and I'm starting to freak out that people didn't recognize the word stop. They took 'stop' for 'send more money' because they just kept growing and growing and growing. My phone and email were going crazy."

As it stands today, the donations have surpassed $13,000 on the PayPal account posted by Taylor. (Donations are now being accepted at this Everribbon site.)

Those seats in the second deck were then traded for tickets in the prestigious Zone Club with another Aggie.

This was a not a group of people who knew each other well banding together. This was Randy Taylor, who'd never met the Underwoods, leading the charge of Aggies who were scattered across the world. Donations came from other schools, even reaching as far as Korea.

"To my knowledge no one donating knows this person, but they are an Ag so everyone knows this person," Taylor said via email.

"He's an angel," Clay Underwood said of Randy Taylor, who is a 1983 A&M alum.

All of the generosity from Texas A&M fans culminated in a day the Underwoods will never forget. It all started with a parking pass.

Clay and Shannon picked up their pass from Randy Taylor on Friday. When they pulled up to a spot right outside the stadium, it was the first and really only time Shannon thought something out of the ordinary might be happening.

"I remember saying to him, 'What kind of friend do you have at the tailgate that hooked you up with this spot right next to the stadium?'" Shannon said. "I thought that was weird, but that was it."

They were taken from their car by rickshaw to the tailgate where Shannon found comfort out of the sun by a fan. When Randy Taylor tried to get her up for the presentation that would change her day, she wasn't exactly thrilled to give up her seat to get out of her cool and comfortable seat.

A man and a young adopted Haitian boy seen in the video appeared to be the center of attention for a moment and Shannon assumed she'd been called over to speak French, as they speak Creole French in Haiti. That's when this scene unfolded.

"We started looking around and I know Scott (Harris) enough to know maybe he had something up his sleeve, but I never in my wildest imagination dreamed it was going to be this," Clay Underwood, a 1997 graduate, said.

Randy Taylor not only let them know they'd be attending the game with tickets in the Zone Club, but they also had field passes. And a check for $6,200 (with more to come, because Randy had to cut a cashier's check in time for the tailgate). And a $250 shopping spree at Aggie Land Outfitters. And free dinner at Shipwreck Grill.

Trying to name everyone responsible is a little bit like that rushed moment in award speeches, but they all deserve mentioning: Scott Harris, the high school friend who started it all on Scout.com. There was Randy Taylor, who took that message over to TexAgs.com. There was photographer Thomas Campbell, who captured the entire day. Alan Bass hosted the tailgate where the memorable scene took place. Jason Rosen, a Dallas attorney, swapped tickets with Taylor so the Underwoods could watch the game in the plush Zone Club. J.L. Taylor, who did a lot of the ground-game work before Randy got to town. And of course, the numerous anonymous donors who helped to not only create a memorable day, but also to ease the financial burden as Shannon undergoes treatment while only working part time.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur for the Underwoods. They went on the sideline before the game—and Shannon even met one of her favorite Aggies, Dat Nguyen. And as you probably know, the Aggies didn't find a way to spring the upset for Shannon, but she saw a parallel in her fight and theirs on that day.

"It didn't matter to me that they lost; it was how they played the game the fact that they never gave up," Shannon said. "I may have been told I have a 30 percent chance of getting cured.

"A lot of people would give up, and I'm not going to lie, there are a lot of times I say, 'Do I really want to keep fighting?' but after this whole thing it gives me a renewed spirit to keep going, to say even when people tell you it's over, you've got to keep fighting. At the end of the day, whether I beat this or whether I don't, it's 'Did I give up or did I fight to the very end?'"